DAILY NEWS
Fast Track reversal, look who’s not talking, Cathy’s hard line, RIP BB…
Friday, May 15, 2015
FAST TRACK
► From Politico — Dems look to start Senate trade war next week — Senate liberals are doing all they can to prolong the fight — perhaps even past the Memorial Day recess into June — in hopes that a long delay will damage the bill’s already difficult prospects in the House.
► In today’s Washington Post — AFL-CIO chief: White House trade bill argument is ‘unadulterated horse waste’ — “If the president wins this fight, Democrats will be in the minority for a decade or so” on Capitol Hill, Trumka said. If Obama is seeking to build on his legacy with the TPP, Trumka added, “it will be the wrong legacy.”
► From Think Progress — TPP could have disastrous results for the climate, environmental groups warn — The TPP could have catastrophic repercussions for climate change, including giving corporations the power to sue governments that try to limit polluting industries, environmental groups say.
LOCAL
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Strike ends, but PeaceHealth workers can’t go back to work yet — PeaceHealth employees who tried to return to work at the end of their 25-hour strike the morning of Thursday, May 14, were barred from entering the hospital.
ALSO at The Stand — PeaceHealth locks out workers in Bellingham
► From KING 5 — Nurses, staff on one-day strike at Cascade Behavioral Hospital — Nearly 100 nurses and healthcare workers have walked off the job at Cascade Behavioral Hospital for a one-day strike over staffing levels, benefits and retirement plans.
► In today’s Spokesman Review — Paid sick leave won’t kill Spokane businesses (by Shawn Vestal) — Would requiring paid sick leave for Spokane workers drive businesses to Idaho? Or is that just a herring that grows redder every year? Against those two extremes, the evidence from other cities that have adopted sick-leave requirements suggests something milder and more mixed: some “negligible” impacts on profits, real but modest effect on prices, and limited downside in lost wages or hours for workers. The tradeoff for workers is significant, if you care about that. And if you don’t, there is a potential benefit for you as well, as someone whose food might be handled by sick employees.
► In today’s Oregonian — Portland adopts $15-an-hour minimum wage for full-time workers, some contractors — The Portland City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to amend its fair wage policy, boosting pay for more than 150 contractors and a handful of full-time workers to $15 an hour
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Olympian — State to release earlier revenue report to speed up budget deal — State lawmakers are looking to jumpstart budget negotiations by moving up the quarterly report that updates them on how much money they have to spend.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Port Commissioner Bill Bryant announces run for governor — Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant launched a bid for governor Thursday, becoming the first significant Republican challenger to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2016.
► From Working Washington — Thousands of SeaTac workers can measure Bill Bryant’s track record in their poverty-wage paychecks — Bryant has served as a Port Commissioner at a time when Sea-Tac Airport workers have led a living wage campaign that is widely recognized for helping spark the nationwide $15 movement — and yet he has opposed essentially every proposal which has come before him to lift up poverty-wage airport workers and boost our local economy.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EDITOR’S NOTE — Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) was the ONLY member of our state’s delegation who voted in favor of blocking young immigrants from serving our nation.
► From Politico — Boehner: ‘Stupid’ to link Amtrak cuts to Philly derailment — Speaker John Boehner’s said Thursday it’s “stupid” to blame federal funding of Amtrak for the deadly train crash in Philadelphia. At least one safety expert said that federal investment in train-speed technology would have prevented the accident that killed eight people.
NATIONAL
► From the Hill — Majority of businesses taking steps to avoid ACA tax — Only 2.5 percent of companies that would be hit by the Cadillac tax starting in 2018 said they plan to pay the tax. Most say they are shifting toward higher deductible plans, while others said they are reducing benefits, shifting more costs to employees or dropping high-cost plans altogether.
► In today’s NY Times —End immigration detention (editorial) — The system of jails and prisons shatters families and squanders taxpayer money. It should be shut down.
► From AP — Illinois lawmakers reject right-to-work, send message to governor — Illinois Democratic lawmakers rejected their own right-to-work bill on Thursday in a symbolic vote meant to send a message to Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who says he wants union membership to be voluntary.
► MUST-READ in today’s Seattle Times — Facebook’s higher minimum wage avoids a key issue (By Jon Talton) — Facebook makes a symbolic start on raising pay for low-wage workers. But it really sidesteps the real problem, domestic outsourcing that keeps wages low, stifles worker mobility and offloads costs to the public.
T.G.I.F.
► Yesterday, America lost a legend with the passing of the great blues guitarist B.B. King. “His world-weary voice and wailing guitar lifted him from the cotton fields of Mississippi to a global stage and the apex of American blues,” reads today’s New York Times. After a string of hits through the 1950s made him one of the most important names in R&B, he was embraced in the 1960s and ’70s by rock ’n’ roll fans and influenced many of the most successful rock guitarists of the era, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.
King considered a 1968 performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco to have been the moment of his commercial breakthrough. When he saw “long-haired white people” lining up outside the venue, he told his road manager, “I think they booked us in the wrong place.” When he was introduced to the sold-out crowd — “Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the chairman of the board, B. B. King” — King said, “Everybody stood up, and I cried. That was the beginning of it.” The Entire Staff of The Stand will always remember him by this song, written in 1988 by U2 for the “King of the Blues.” R.I.P., B.B.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.